BUSINESS: Firms up the stakes for Christmas marketing

BUSINESS: Firms up the stakes for Christmas marketing

Whether it’s Moz the Monster or Paddington Bear, the focus on Christmas adverts from UK retailers is greater than ever this year.

The Barclays Christmas Confidence Survey reveals this trend is likely to continue, with a third (34%) of retailers indicating that they have increased their marketing spend, despite rising cost pressures, and 43% predicting that increased marketing across the industry will have a positive impact on Christmas trading.

In a reassuring sign, the results also show that confidence for the Christmas period is holding up, as compared with 2016, 71% are more confident or as confident about their overall Christmas trading prospects and 49% expect to achieve revenue growth.

Black Friday continued to be a key pillar of most retailers’ Christmas strategies, with 73% participating.

Looking at the wider Christmas period, 70% of retailers are planning discounts more carefully to maximise margins, with more discounting of select products over a longer period this year rather than heavy discounting on Black Friday.

Online and multichannel sales are expected to make a huge contribution, with half (49%) of sales this Christmas predicted to involve more than one channel, such as a product being viewed online and then purchased in store.

An estimated 30% of sales will be completed online, around double the usual level in a standard month. Retailers appear to be adapting to the new challenges posed by these changing dynamics, with 41% investing more on their online capacity and infrastructure this year.

Howard Noye, head of Retail & Wholesale at Barclays Corporate Banking, South West, said: “There are some encouraging findings in this survey.

“It’s a difficult time with the combination of rising costs and uncertainty around Brexit contributing to a tricky overall operating environment, so the enduring confidence for the Christmas period is great to see and testament to the efforts being made by all involved in the retail sector.

“The importance placed on marketing spend is really striking and along with ensuring the online and multichannel strategy is carefully planned, getting marketing campaigns right can really help attract customers to retail brands at this time of year.”

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